After a year of projects at our new house, we decided we should document at least one of them. We are down to one last major project, the upstairs bathroom. It has been a long and arduous process but we are so close to finally having a fully functional house.
But, until this bathroom is finished, we do not have a place to shower and will be dependent on the hospitality of our family and friends (and and sometimes pool membership), who, so far, have been more than accommodating. But who wants to leave their own home every time they need to take a shower?
What we are dealing with.
The house was built in 1915 so I’m sure this project will be full of surprises. Currently, the bathroom has yellow tile about half way up every wall. Above the tile are plaster walls covered with a thick wallpaper that has been painted blue. There is a pink cast iron tub, a white pedestal sink, a toilet, and a radiator cover that is no longer needed. The closest wall that you see on the right side of the picture is a huge closet.
The plan.
The plan is to remove the tile and replace it with drywall after we update the plumbing and electric. We will keep the parts of the wall that are plaster. This means there will be a lot less mess to clean up but also that we will have to complete the tedious task of removing all of the wallpaper and glue. The closet will be torn all the way out, tile, plaster and all. The floor tile will be taken up and will be replaced with new ceramic tile. The tub and toilet will be replaced and we are considering keeping the sink if we can get it cleaned up and looking new. At this time, we are not planning on tiling any of the walls. We bought a clawfoot tub on Craigslist so there is no need for a tub/shower surround. We would like to redo all the plumbing in the bathroom and connect it to the new copper lines we discovered when working on one of the downstairs rooms. There are no lights or switches in the bathroom other than the lights on the mirror above the vanity that you turn on with a pull chain so we would like update the electric so that we can add an overhead light and switches.
Sounds easy, right? We'll soon find out!
